The present invention is an improved electrical connector for high-level signal applications in consumer and professional audio products. Such electrical connectors are used as audio signal output terminals on audio amplifiers and as audio signal input terminals on loudspeakers, being permanently attached to said products and allowing said products to be electrically interfaced to one another by means of non-permanent connection with conductive cables.
Conventional electrical connectors of this sort, known as binding posts, are of standardized design, dimensions, and materials, manufactured by many different firms and installed as original equipment on audio amplifiers and loudspeakers from many different manufacturers of said products.
Conventional electrical connectors of this sort are intended to allow non-permanent electrical connection involving the use of a variety of standardized and widely available wire terminations, including but not limited to spade lugs, banana plugs, and double banana plugs. Conventional electrical connectors of this sort are also intended to allow non-permanent electrical connection involving the use of bare wire without said terminations.
However, conventional electrical connectors of this sort do not permit intimate contact with the abovementioned wire terminations over a significant area. Further, conventional electrical connectors of this sort are not sized and shaped to allow the use of heavy-gauge unterminated wire, said wire being favored by audio enthusiasts as possessing superior electrical and hence sonic properties.
Still further, conventional electrical connectors of this sort do not allow the use of unterminated wire in such a way that a group of individual wire strands may be compressed and held in intimate contact over a significant area. Further, in said applications with the use of unterminated wire, conventional electrical connectors of this sort do not provide a reliable means of routing or dressing the wire in order that individual wire strands will be prevented from separating from the main group of strands and possibly making unwanted contact with an adjacent connector. Said unwanted contact results in a direct short, and has been known to cause serious damage to audio amplifiers.
Furthermore, conventional electrical connectors of this sort do not allow the non-permanent electrical connection to be made significantly tight, said tightness being generally accepted as a means of enhancing the electrical and hence sonic properties of a given nonpermanent electrical connection.
Still further, conventional electrical connectors of this sort are typically made from brass, subsequently plated with nickel and/or gold. All of said materials have been demonstrated to exhibit uniformly low and/or non-linear (frequency-dependent) conductivity characteristics as compared to other conductive materials available for audio applications.